Football Euro 2012 News: Israel 1 – 2 Croatia Analysis, Kranjcar saves the Blazers (Part 2)
The starting line up for Croatia was: 12 Vedran Runje (Goal Keeper), 3 Josip Simunic (Defender), 5 Vedran Corluka (Defender), 13 Gordon Schildenfeld (Defender), 2 Ivan Strinic (Defender), 19 Niko Kranjcar (Midfielder), 6 Danijel Pranjic (Midfielder), 7 Ivan
Rakitic (Midfielder), 10 Luka Modric (Midfielder), 18 Ivica Olic (Forward) and 9 Eduardo (Forward). With a 4 – 4 – 2 formation Croatia were going to play a lot of balls from the wings.
The substitution list included: 1 Stipe Pletikosa (Goal Keeper), 20 Dejan Lovren (Defender), 11 Ivo Ilicevic (Midfielder), 8 Ognjen Vukojevic (Midfielder), 16 Tomislav Dujmovic (Midfielder), 21 Mate Bilic (Forward) and 17 Mario Mandzukic (Forward).
The match started with the whistle of Wolfgang Stark and both teams sprang on to the ball to net the first goal.
However, it was a controversial penalty in the 38th minute that gave Croatia the chance to draw first blood and Kranjcar proved good enough to capitalize from the situation to open the score 1-0.
Just four minutes before the end of the first half, Kranjcar added another to his and Croatia’s tally to double the lead and secure position of the Blazers further more in the match.
The guests played well for an away team, as they silenced the 21,000 Israeli faithful present at the Ramat Gan Stadium.
However, Israel did have their moments too and scored a late goal in the 82nd minute when Itay Shechter struck the ball right footed ball to the left corner from 12 yards in to the net. After that the Croatian team realized their mistake and plugged
the hole in the penalty area, therefore Israelis were unable to find the leveller and the lone goal proved to be nothing more than consolation.
Despite a poor performance, (excusably because they were missing their star players Benayoun and Kayal) Israelis did make attempts to score till the end. They wasted no time in checking out the Croatian goalkeeper Vedran Runje as Shechter strike broke more
than sweat from the shot stopper just 11 seconds from the whistle. In the end, Runje was good enough to deflect the ball enough from going into net.
Just breaths later Gil Vermouth was the man who tried to score but he needed a rabbit’s foot in his pocket as the ball struck from the edge of the box was just wide from the wood work.
In the beginning, the match was a bit dull even from the Croatian side. Ivan Rakitic was very cautious in not losing the ball and as a result was less creative and the shots he took went yards past the goal post and miles away from the glove man Dudu Aouate
not once but twice.
Therefore, the hosts sprung early to make an example and Shechter tried his luck. However, his shot lacked the finishing ability. Around that time, Yoav Ziv also came close to scoring off a close ranged shot but Runje was quick enough to deflect the strike
over the crossbar.
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